The production of beverage milks combines the operations of clarification, separation for the production of lower fat milks, pasteurization, and homogenization. While the fat content of most raw milk is 4% or higher, the fat content in most beverage milks has been reduced to 3.4%. Lower fat alternatives, such as 2% fat, 1% fat, or skim milk (<0.1% fat) are also available in most markets. These products are either produced by partially skimming the whole milk, or by completely skimming it and then adding an appropriate amount of cream back to achieve the desired final fat content.
Milk is a major ingredient in espresso and cocoa-based gourmet beverages, specifically cappuccino, mocha, hot cocoa, and latte beverages, both hot and iced. One method for producing cappuccino and latte beverages is through the use of super-automated brewing equipment. These machines come equipped as two-step or one-step machines, referring to the number of steps required by the operator to produce the milk/espresso beverage. Two-step machines require the operator to first hand steam the milk component and then combine the milk with espresso that is produced automatically by the machine or with cocoa. One-step machines automatically steam and combine the milk component with automatically produced espresso.
A major limitation of existing available one-step machines is the variety of milk that is available to the consumer. Machines currently available can only handle one milk variety due to limitations in milk storage, plumbing, and recipe programming capacity.
In the North American market in particular this creates a problem and major limitation for the commercial viability of these one-step machines because the educated coffee consumer has become accustomed to choosing between, skim, 1%, 2%, and whole (3.4%) milk. Retailers typically steam milk by hand in order to offer this variety of milk to their customers. This results in slower customer service, product inconsistency and more milk waste.